======================================================================== SEE YOUR LOCAL CHURCH CHANGED by Francis Chan ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of sharing the gospel with those who have never heard of Jesus, highlighting the urgency and passion needed to reach the lost. It challenges believers to forsake personal comforts and follow Jesus wholeheartedly, reminding them of the shortness of life and the eternal significance of spreading the message of salvation. The focus is on living selflessly, being committed to both local church missions and global outreach, and preparing for the day of God's return. Duration: 5:07 Topics: "Evangelism", "Urgency of the Gospel" Scripture References: Matthew 28:19, Luke 19:10, 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 5:15, 2 Peter 3:9, James 4:14, 1 Timothy 6:17, 2 Corinthians 9:7, 2 Peter 3:11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of sharing the gospel with those who have never heard of Jesus, highlighting the urgency and passion needed to reach the lost. It challenges believers to forsake personal comforts and follow Jesus wholeheartedly, reminding them of the shortness of life and the eternal significance of spreading the message of salvation. The focus is on living selflessly, being committed to both local church missions and global outreach, and preparing for the day of God's return. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To be honest, I get nervous with missionary speakers because sometimes they're not... I always love them. These are my heroes. I'm not saying anything bad. I'm just saying, as far as communication, sometimes you can... it's... they may not be as gifted at holding the attention of people, but with the GFA guys, there's no problem in that area. There's just... there's so much passion, there's so much excitement, and... and yeah, they say some really difficult things. When Jesus saw the crowds, when Jesus saw people, he didn't just see people, he saw individuals, and he saw individuals, he saw their heart, and he saw broken lives without a purpose. Brothers and sisters, we're called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Whatever we do, though, has to come back to preaching the gospel to people who have never had a chance to hear Jesus' name and planting a church among them. How dare I hear the gospel twice when half the planet hasn't heard it once? Jesus came for one purpose, to seek and save that which was lost. That's his heart, and that's his passion. Who wants to be God-sensitive anymore? Who cares what God thinks? Shouldn't we? Isn't this his church? One of the things that stands out to me about the GFA speakers is they aren't just dispensing information. It's not just statistics and data, although there's always part of that presentation that includes that, but more importantly, you can tell that they carry on their heart a burden for the lost. Gospel for Asia caused me to step back and to revisit the basic principles of our calling as a church, and that is to go into all the world and preach the gospel, reach the world for Christ. God will give us grace. Remember, his eyes are going to and fro throughout the whole earth. He's looking for you to pray so that he can just show himself strong on your behalf and my behalf. But there must come a time in our life when we decide we're going to forsake our vacations and our money and our position, our 401Ks. It's like a 101K now anyway, right? Our lives and pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Jesus is never going to stick the cross on you. You got to grab a hold of it and you got to run with it and follow after him. Two billion people we're talking about on planet earth never heard the gospel. They're still waiting to hear Jesus' name for the very first time, and my friends, their future is hell unless that we can reach them while there's yet time. That's what they have to look forward to. The Lord has left us here for a very short time. Each day we have one day closer to our funeral. Isn't that exciting? Praise God. I think what these speakers do is they open our eyes to our own selfishness. I like to think that I'm not as self-centered as I really am and that I'm not as spoiled as I really am, and they really opened my eyes to look even though you give and give significantly, you've still got it really good. I've had pastors say to me, well, I don't want to have a speaker come in because then my people won't give to my church, they'll give to this mission. We found that that's not what happens at all. Not only do people give more to missions, they give more to the local church. They become more committed to the mission of the local church at the same time as they become more committed to the work of God around the world. Once you know the ministry's heart, I tell you, you'll be on the phone contacting Gospel for Asia about when can you guys come? When can you speak to our body? And when all of this is going to burn, what kind of people ought we to be? What kind of lives ought we to live? We ought to live holy and godly lives looking forward to the day of God. Brothers and sisters, please, let's watch where we're going. If you know Jesus Christ here today, so much of this stuff doesn't matter. You may not be all happy about who's in Washington and what's going on and all these things. I'm not the happiest guy about it, but the deal is my job is to pray and to live for the next kingdom, not for this one. I would challenge you, pray and ask the Lord to help you see beyond your life today, beyond your very lifetime, to help you see what really matters in eternity. I encourage anyone and everyone to check out Gospel for Asia and how they can be involved in reaching the world. Time is short. Jesus said we need to work now while it's daytime because night is soon coming when no man can work. Now's the time. Now's the open door of opportunity to respond. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/4Ee_Yf-9hFI.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/francis-chan/see-your-local-church-changed/ ========================================================================